Indian Techie Faces 25 Years Jail For $7.3 Million Fraud

Sivannarayana Barama, 48, is a former IT specialist who is now convicted on four charges of securities fraud in the state of California. Between October 2016 and September 2017, he learned important inside information about his company’s quarterly revenue and financial performance and used it to trade in the company’s stock.

A superseding indictment issued in December 2019 charged him and his co-defendant with securities fraud and conspiring to conduct securities fraud. While the co-defendant pleaded guilty in 2019, Barama’s verdict was given on December 13, 2022.

Barama was employed with Palo Alto Networks, a public company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and listed on NASDAQ Exchange. He was a contractor who gained access to the company’s quarterly performance even before it was made public and then traded on the company’s stock. Barama met a person from the information technology department during his time at the company and learned confidential information.

Once the company made the quarterly performance public, Barama’s stocks rose, and he eventually made $7.3 million. Sivannarayana Barama now faces a maximum statutory sentence of 25 years in prison.